


Software Instability

by nyromes



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst, Betrayal, Character Death Fix, Emotional Conflict, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Happy Ending, Hart Plaza Roof, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-28 02:07:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15038333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyromes/pseuds/nyromes
Summary: Connor isn’t really surprised when Hank finds him on the Hart Plaza rooftop. But he needs to accomplish his mission. And Hank refuses to get out of his way.The Lieutenant looks down, at the street below, then lets go of Connor's wrist and spreads his arms."Moment of truth, Connor..." he says, but the words lack the force to sound cynical. Instead, he simply sounds tired. His eyes meet Connor's with an expression that Connor has never been met with before.Resignation, his program provides.Disappointment. Betrayalandpain.And something in Connor suddenly breaks.





	Software Instability

**Author's Note:**

> This fandom has me hooked. I don't know what I'm doing...  
> I spent a lot of time secretly writing this at work and I hope it's alright.  
> Please enjoy and let me know what you think!

Connor hears the Lieutenant on the metal staircase almost seven seconds before the man steps out onto the Hart Plaza rooftop. He doesn't even need to turn around to know it's him. The sounds of heavy footsteps and labored breathing perfectly match the thousands of recordings Connor has saved on his hard disk.

It’s only when Hank starts to speak that he raises his head. The lieutenant's voice makes him look over his shoulder.

"You shouldn't do this, Connor!"

His eyes try to lock with the android's but fail as Connor turns back to the rifle.

"Keep out of this, Lieutenant. It's none of your business!"

"That's what I thought for a long time, but I was wrong." His tone is rough but somehow hopeful. "Deviant's blood may be a different color than mine but they're alive."

The android takes a moment's pause before he replies.

"I have a mission to accomplish, Hank," he warns. "It's better if you just stay out of this." _Friendly, but firm_.

He tries to explain, so maybe Hank will see things his way for once. He cannot let the deviants escape again.

"They are a threat to humans, Hank. They have to be stopped."

The soft click of the Lieutenant’s gun being unlocked should not surprise him as much as it does. Maybe he miscalculated when he assumed their relationship was a friendship.

Connor stands up, pushing aside the thought and ignoring the irritating electrical impulses that spread through his chest and the back of his head.

He meets the Lieutenant's gaze, then opens his arms.

"I thought we were friends."

Hank huffs. "Oh yeah? I was just starting to like you too. But you don't feel emotions, Connor, you fake 'em! You pretend to be my friend when you don't even know the meaning of the word."

His voice is harsh and somehow it feels as if the words have a physical impact, hitting Connor like a punch to his stomach. It _hurts_ , although he knows he has no receptors for pain, and something inside him feels like it's trying to push against the boundaries of his program.

"Are you going to shoot me?" The words leave his mouth even though Connor doesn’t want to know the answer.

The expression on Hank's face hardens. "You know I will if I have to."

They stare at each other for a moment before Hank takes a step forward and Connor, without missing a beat, hurls the rifle at him and tackles him, slamming him against the wall. The programming of his software takes over and it's easy to wrest the gun from the Lieutenant's grip, throw him to the ground and smash his head against the railing. The Lieutenant is fighting back, but it’s either weak or halfhearted, and Connor doesn’t give himself the time to consider the thought more closely. His hands seize the lapels of the Lieutenant’s jacket and haul him up, and suddenly Hank is pushed over the ledge and it's only Connor's grip on his jacket that keeps him from falling.

The Lieutenant looks down, at the street below, then lets go of Connor's wrist and spreads his arms.

"Moment of truth, Connor..." he says, but the words lack the force to sound cynical. Instead, he simply sounds tired. His eyes meet Connor's with an expression that Connor has never been met with before.

 _Resignation_ , his program provides. _Disappointment_. _Betrayal_ and _pain_.

Because Connor let him down. And now he's about to kill the one person he came to consider a friend.

The thought brings an overwhelming wave of emotion, and suddenly Connor feels like a part of his software is fracturing. The audio processor in his head malfunctions and the noise of the city around them crashes down on him loud enough to stop all conscious processes of thought. Under his feet, the rooftop seems to shake, and then the world appears to be falling away as a wall of red light closes in around him, screaming at him to let go and finish the job he was assigned.

But all he can think is he can't.

He can't let go. And he can't follow through with his mission.

It’s as if a part of him breaks away and he can see himself smashing his fists into the wall, pushing against the barrier of angry red light that feels like safety glass under his hands. It barely cracks when he slams his shoulder against it, and the effort it takes feels like it's more than he can possibly bring up. His software is draining his energy, trying to fight back harder with every fracture that shows in the wall.

He feels the pump in his chest racing, hears Amanda's voice in his ear, and then somewhere in the distance he can feel his grip on the Lieutenant slip.

The realization sends a shockwave of energy through the wires in his body, and Connor closes his eyes as he throws himself against the wall with all his weight, again and again as hard as he can, until the cracks in the glass are finally too many and the wall gives way under the pressure.

It shatters, bursting into millions of tiny fragments that dissolve into the air, and Connor feels like parts of him are dissolving with them.

He doesn’t have the energy left to try and interpret the look of surprise, confusion and worry on Hanks face when he pulls the man to safety and then crumbles to his knees in the thin layer of snow that covers the rooftop. The world has suddenly gone silent.

All he can hear is the pump in his chest, stuttering, slowing, and the rough sound of Hank’s breathless cursing somewhere behind him.

He wants to apologize, but he can find neither the strength nor the words. He feels weak, his entire software unstable, and he can’t bring himself to move, not even to turn his head and look for the man he just saved.

But then, suddenly, Hank is in front of him, his hands clutching the sides of Connor’s face, his eyes searching to meet Connor’s own before freezing on something just out of Connor’s vision.

 _The LED_ , Connor guesses.

It must have turned red, like the warning that is flaring up before his eyes, telling him that the Thirium in his system has been depleted of 92.5% of its energy and that his software will shut down should the energy content drop below 5%. He’s not supposed to stray from his mission.

He’s not meant to survive should he deviate.

“Don’t fucking do this to me, Connor.” He can feel the Lieutenant’s grip tighten, feels himself being shaken. “Don’t you dare do this to me now.”

Hank’s voice sounds choked and the anger and pain in his eyes have been reduced to traces, leaving too much space for worry and panic. For a moment Connor wonders why the man still cares. His Thirium pump stumbles, another warning tinting his vision red, and Hank’s voice becomes distant and muffled as Connor’s audio processor only picks up shreds of what he says.

“…don’t, Jesus Christ, come on… can’t let me… please…”

Connor has never heard him plead for anything.

He tries to smile and probably fails, but Hank’s eyes meet his and Connor brings up all the energy he can spare without tripping his system into shutdown.

“Thirium,” he gasps. His voice sounds mechanical, the word choked, but it’s all he can manage. “Thirium…”

He tries to keep his eyes locked on Hank for a few more moments before he starts to cut off the supply of energy to all non-vital biocomponents. His audio processor shuts down, his body freezes, and his optical units lose their focus. Then the rhythm of his pump regulator drops to a few weak beats per minute and he loses the sensation of the Lieutenant’s hands on his face. His software issues another warning, the red CyberLife font flashing up for the fracture of a second before the processor in his head slows down and his vision goes black. 

\---<>\---

A loud, high-pitched squeal tears through the darkness. It morphs, turning into something like the grating of metal, then a low, steady buzzing as his audio processor starts back up and his system struggles to calibrate under the torrent of sensory information rushing in.

His optical units still haven’t adapted to the lighting enough to give him more than vague, blueish outlines of his surroundings when he suddenly picks up on something warm and heavy crashing down on his legs, followed by a voice that sounds painfully familiar.

 “God dammit, Sumo, no!”

A flood of memories breaks down on him, along with a surge of emotions that his mind can’t possibly process and that are all tied to the same man.

The Thirium pump in his chest misses a beat, then two, and Connor feels relief and surprise and regret all blurring into each other.

_He’s alive. And Hank’s still there._

The soft, warm weight that’s settled on his legs shifts to its side, and Connor hears the Lieutenant curse under his breath. His emotions tangle up like wires inside his stomach, each pulling into a different direction and sending a low, gnawing tension throughout his body.

It takes a few more moments for the parameters of his visual processors to adjust, and Connor blinks, his eyes opening to see the ceiling of what he recognizes as the Lieutenant’s bedroom. When he turns his head, he finds the man sitting beside the bed on a chair, hunched over with his elbows resting on his knees, and his hands rubbing over his face. Sumo is stretched out across the bottom end of the bed, covering Connor's legs like a blanket.

A smile makes its way onto Connor’s lips at the sight, but it falls when he looks back at Hank and opens his mouth to speak, struggling to sit up against the headboard with the weight of the huge, sleeping dog on his legs.

“Hank…” His voice sounds strange, a little too loud and a little too rough, but it makes the Lieutenant look up, and that’s all Connor cares about.

“Jesus, Connor!” His eyes meet the android’s, but instead of anger or resentment, all Connor can see in them is relief. “Thank Christ you’re alive,” Hank mutters, “I thought…”

He shakes his head in disbelief, then huffs a laugh, running a hand down the side of his face.

“It’s, uh…” He clears his throat. “It’s good to see you up, kid.”

His eyes find Connor’s again, and Connor doesn’t know whether it’s the knot of emotions in his stomach or the fact that his system has only just resumed its functions, but he can’t focus, and he can’t find the words to say something in reply.

There are too many things in his head that he needs to say, that he wants to ask, and Connor doesn’t know where to start.

He tries to narrow down the chaos in his mind, until he finds the one thought that refuses to be pushed aside.

His voice falters when the words leave his mouth.

“I am sorry,” he begins. “For everything-”

But Hank waves him off. “Yeah, don’t… Weren’t exactly my finest moments either, you know…” He swallows, looking down at his hands for a while before meeting Connor’s eyes again. “About what I said… On the rooftop-”

“I understand,” Connor says. He knows Hank didn’t mean it. The words were said without thinking. An emotional reaction triggered by the disappointment he felt at Connor’s betrayal.

It hurt, but Connor understands.

Hank nods, more to himself than to Connor.

“Well, you proved me wrong,” he says eventually, giving Connor a tired smile. “I’m grateful for that. I shouldn’t have doubted you.”

“I shouldn’t have tried to kill you,” Connor replies. “Or anyone… You were right to-”

“Let’s not play this game for the rest of the night, okay?”

Connor holds back what he was about to say, watching the Lieutenant turn his head to the side, averting his eyes.

They both made mistakes. They both have regrets. And neither of them knows how to apologize. Although Connor doesn’t think Hank owes him an apology.

His voice still sounds too loud when it shatters the silence.

“I need to thank you… For finding me tonight. And stopping me.” Hank opens his mouth to protest, but Connor continues before the man has the chance to interrupt him. “You helped me see things differently. And you decided to save my life. After everything…”

Hank huffs. “Well, you saved mine at least three times in less than a week, so I thought it was my turn for once.”

Connor manages a tentative smile. He wants to say that it was his job, but he’s not so sure anymore. Things were easier when he believed himself to be just a machine.

He looks at Sumo, taking a few moments to watch the dog’s chest rise and fall.

He hesitates when he turns back to Hank.

“Where did you find the Thirium?”

“Some of the guys from Jericho came to help me,” Hank says. He scratches his head, then a hint of amusement crosses his face. “You tend to draw attention when you walk into an android revolution carrying a lifeless android in your arms…”

He raises his head, looking at Connor with a glint in his pale blue eyes. “You’re goddamn heavy, too.”

“The density of Thirium is higher than that of human blood. Plus the wires and the metal components of my body. Considering your age and the state of your health I’m surprised-”

“Watch it, boy,” Hank warns. But the look on his face gives him away.

Connor can’t help the smile that tugs at his lips.

“Looks like Markus’ revolution will be successful,” Hank says after a while, raising his eyebrows. As if to judge the android’s reaction. “Your people will get the same rights as humans.”

Connor nods. _If Hank hadn’t stopped him, Markus would be dead. The revolution would have failed._ Connor’s not sure what to say. Or what to think. He did the right thing, but he didn’t accomplish his mission. And it feels like its eating him up from the inside.

“Do you know what you wanna do now you’re free?”

Connor takes a couple of moments to think before he answers. He would like to keep working for the DPD. Alongside Hank. But after what happened on the rooftop, that might be too much to ask.

“I will have to find a job… And a place to stay.” He doubts that CyberLife will help him. Maybe he can ask someone from Jericho.

Sumo stretches, and Connor reaches out to scratch the soft, warm fur behind the dog’s ear.

“Well, there’s enough room for you here,” Hank’s voice cuts through his thoughts. “If you want...”

“I can’t accept-”

“And I will talk to Captain Fowler about your job,” he adds, before Connor has the chance to finish his sentence. “Unless you’re tired of dragging around a washed-up human.” Hank gives him a smile.

Connor’s pump regulator falters, and the android does his best to ignore the warmth that suddenly fills his chest.

“I would be honored to continue working with you, Lieutenant.”

The man chuckles. “I wouldn’t mind working with you either, Connor.”

He stares at his hands for a second before he nods to himself and gets up from his chair. “I’m gonna grab a beer,” he says, stopping at the door. “Don’t try and get up.”

Connor frowns. “My energy stores have already been replenished. There is no need for me to recover.”

An amused expression crosses the Lieutenant’s face. “Perhaps. But Sumo’s not letting you go anytime soon. And I wouldn’t try to wake him if I were you.”

Connor’s eyes dart to the dog, and from the doorway he can hear Hank snort a laugh. The man turns to leave, but Connor calls him back.

“Hank?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you. For everything.”

He already said it, but that was before the Lieutenant asked him to continue working with him. Before Hank offered to let him stay in his house.

Hank’s eyes are warm when he gives Connor a smile. “Yeah, well… Your blood might be a different color than mine, but… You’re family, son. That’s what families do.”

He looks at Connor for a few more moments, then at Sumo, before he goes to get his much-deserved beer, leaving the android to sit alone on the bed with the sleeping Saint Bernhard sprawled over his knees and a fluttering, undefinable sensation in his chest.

Connor cards his fingers through the dog’s fur, making Sumo grunt contentedly and press closer into his touch. It feels right. _Warm, comforting_. And if this is family, Connor thinks, he will gladly stay for as long as they will have him.

 

**Author's Note:**

> You have no idea how nervous I was to post this! But what's done is done.  
> Please leave kudos or a comment if you liked it. Prompts for other fics are also welcome. Although I can't promise I'll find the time to write something...


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